Conference: Rail Deliveries of Petroleum and Gas Refined Products

Date:
June 23, 2017

The 8th annual international conference «Rail deliveries of petroleum and gas refined products», held in Moscow on June 23, 2017, has successfully concluded its work.

“Splav” is the official partner of the conference.

The Conference is supported by “Sovfracht".

This annual event brings together delegates from oil and gas refineries, logistics and trucking businesses, petroleum and LPG traders, owners of tanks and tank-containers, loading terminals, carriage manufacturing and repair companies, railway administrations, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia.

In his keynote address, Alexander Sapronov, executive director at Freight One, focussed on three key factors which influence the development of the petroleum and gas refined products rail deliveries, namely current competition with the pipeline, the rate and pace of refinery upgrades and the industry regulator's resolution to ban the rolling stock lifetime extensions. According to Mr Sapronov, long-distance petroleum cargoes deliveries are declining. He believes a softening of the tariff policies can be a solution to this problem. The speaker recommended the market participants to give particular attention to RTC loaded travel times with the aim of optimizing the delivery process and cost saving. «Aim for more freight operations by fewer RTCs,» said the Mr Sapronov.

A comparison between LPG rail deliveries in Russia and China was offered in the report by Lina Cui, purchasing manager at Kunlun Energy Company Limited. She spoke about a unique experience of LPG deliveries from China to Russia via Kazakhstan and Mongolia, and gave an account of gas deliveries requirements by different types of RTC. Ms Cui also talked about the Belt & Road international economic initiative, which brings Russia and China closer, and the recently built pipeline for gas refined products transportation.

The international transport of Russian goods was then followed-up by Alexander Sharov, director at Chemtrans Ltd (RusIranExpo). His speech elaborated on the relations of Iran with European and Middle East countries. Petroleum products rail deliveries in Iran depend directly on the global political environment. «A gas pipeline between Iran and Pakistan has been built, but Pakistan cannot buy gas from Iran for political reasons,» he said. Mr Sharov advocated for an increased market turnover for Iran and noting that the market is open for new projects and logistics.

Emil Arzangulyan, chairman of the Board of Directors at Ecogaz, complemented the discussions about short-, medium- and long-distance road transportation of LPG in Russia. He dwelt on the certification of gas carriers and tank-containers used for gas refined products transportation. According to Mr Arzangulyan, improving the legal framework through a closer interaction with the industry regulators can lead to a quicker and less expensive certification process.

There was then a very positive speech by Andrei Vashchenko, head of strategic development department at Gazpromtrans. He said that, despite the multitude of challenges that the industry faces, there are solutions. In particular, a systematic approach to product quality management can be a very effective tool. Mr Vashchenko stressed the importance of a government mechanism that would help to change the corporate pricing models and to adjust LPG transportation routes.

Sergey Kovalevsky, head of projects at the Federal Carrier of Dangerous Cargoes, then shared experiences of bulk liquids road haulage. He illustrated the advantages of petroleum products short- and medium-distance transportation by road vs by rail. By way of assuring quality transportation, the Federal Carrier of Dangerous Cargoes developed the Finished Product Loading Regulations, implemented special software to control shipments, deployed an anti-fraud programme and enhanced their dispatch and scheduling, which is indispensable even with GPS-equipped trucks.

Anatoliy Kuzhel, deputy head of Traffic Management central directorate of the Russian Railways (RZD), highlighted a sizeable increase in the volumes of petroleum products and liquefied hydrocarbons delivered by rail over the first five months of 2017. Kuibyshev and Sverdlovsk routes are leading the way. He also said that exports of petroleum product bulk cargoes by rail are on the rise. After his speech, Mr Kuzhel answered several questions about routing and rolling stock turnover speed.

Conference participants were unanimous in supporting the relevance of the Conference theme and offered a broad-based momentum to resume the discussions next year.